Ripple IRA

A self-directed Ripple IRA is an individual retirement account held by trustees or custodians that permit investments in a broad array of assets, from virtual currencies, including Ripple, gold and other precious metals to real estate, promissory notes, or private placement securities.

Earnings in a Ripple IRA grow tax-deferred, which means you won’t pay capital gains taxes if you sell, but gains will be taxed at your normal income tax rate when funds are withdrawn in retirement.

What is Ripple?

Ripple is based in San Francisco and launched in 2012. It first came onto the cryptocurrency scene to facilitate global financial transactions. Unlike other forms of cryptocurrency, Ripple uses actual banks as counterparties. Santander, Bank of America, UBS and companies in Japan and South Korea use the Ripple technology platform. With low transaction fees and closely held control by the company founders, Ripple is in charge of releasing the coins and setting the market. Unlike Bitcoin, Ripple cannot be mined by users.

Users are drawn to Ripple due to its incredibly fast transaction process — it takes only seconds to fulfill a transaction (compared to hours or days for other cryptocurrencies). Like Bitcoin and Litecoin, Ripple uses blockchain technology programming for its transactions.